Â鶹ŮÓÅ

The first moment between a mother and newborn has long been believed to offer lasting benefits, but a new study is challenging assumptions about how far those benefits go. A randomized clinical trial published in the journal JAMA Network Open found that skin-to-skin contact (SSC) between mothers and their newborns in the delivery room did not improve neurodevelopmental outcomes at two to three years of age. (Gray, 4/16)

A novel antibiotic recently approved for treatment of urinary tract infections also shows efficacy against gonorrhea, according to the results of a phase 3 randomized trial published yesterday in The Lancet. The multicenter trial, which involved more than 600 people in 5 countries with Neisseria gonorrhoeae infections, found that oral gepotidacin was noninferior to the standard regimen of intramuscular ceftriaxone plus azithromycin, with a treatment success rate of 93% and no new safety concerns. (Dall, 4/15)

In a prostate cancer screening program involving participants in the top decile of risk as determined by a polygenic risk score, the percentage found to have clinically significant disease was higher than the percentage that would have been identified with the use of PSA or MRI. (McHugh et al, 4/9)

One reason why our livers excel at clearing waste from our blood system is that the organ functions according to three key "zones" that perform specific major tasks. So, if scientists hope to create self-growing patches of liver organoid tissue that could help repair damaged organs, it's important that the lab-grown tissue faithfully reproduce such zones. In a groundbreaking paper published April 16 in the journal Nature, a team of organoid medicine experts at Cincinnati Children's reports achieving just such a milestone -- made from human stem cells. When these humanized organoids were transplanted into rodents whose own liver-bile duct system had been disconnected, the improved organoids nearly doubled the rodents' survival rate. (4/16)